One of the recurring themes we have seen with today’s IT development projects and the rollout of new capabilities has been the lack of preparation and setup of the right team with the proper skills to ensure success. A key root cause of IT project failure in over 90% of the projects we remediate has been the project team.

In order to avoid this pitfall and make sure that you see positive results at the end of every project, make an attempt to do the following:

Ask –Take the time to ask everyone (vendors, software supplier, key partners, etc.) what would be the composition of a successful team. Find out what was used successfully in the past for governance and subject matter expertise.

Tough Love – Step back and ask if your current resources are really capable of driving success. Do they have the knowledge and expertise to create and sustain something new? Or will you have to face skill gap issues after the project has started?

Then Supplement – Face the fact that you may need to supplement your current resources, because you may not have the right resources to get the job done. Be realistic about what your team can take on.

Stop – Don’t start the project unless you have the right team, the right leadership and expertise in place. Don’t get started with a team that is limited or has constraints. In the long run you will regret starting without the right resources.

We have found that in most cases the composition of the team and their expertise is more important than the software and tools you are attempting to deploy. Getting the resources right at the beginning will make a significant difference!